Iranian ambassador: Region can't take more war
By Wolf Blitzer
CNN
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Iran's ambassador to the U.N., Mohammed Javad Zarif.
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- We haven't heard much lately from Iran, Iraq's large and strategically important neighbor to the east. But make no mistake: the leadership in Tehran is waiting and watching the showdown with Iraq as closely as anyone. They know the implications for their fundamentalist Muslim regime are enormous.
There, of course, is no love lost between Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and the Iranian government. This was underlined to me the other day when I spoke with Iran's ambassador to the United Nations, Mohammed Javad Zarif. Iran, he said pointedly, is a victim of "Iraq's use of weapons of mass destruction."
As you probably remember, long before Saddam Hussein's army invaded Kuwait in 1990, that same army moved into Iran in an unprovoked act of aggression. Through much of the 1980s, that brutal Iraqi-Iranian war continued. Ambassador Zarif -- recalling the Iraqi army's use of chemical weapons -- said his government's "conservative" estimate is that 100,000 Iranians were either killed or injured in those attacks. "Some are continuing to suffer from the effects of chemical weapons on a daily basis," he said.
Despite Iranian anger, the ambassador said Iran opposes a U.S.-led war against Iraq. "I believe our region cannot take another war. It's a region that has been the subject of two destructive wars, unfortunately, both of which have been launched by Saddam Hussein." He said Iran was concerned "about the humanitarian consequences of another war, about the political consequences of another war, and about the uncertainty that will be pervading."
Those are fair points but President Bush is showing absolutely no signs of backing down in this standoff. He says the only thing that will prevent a war in the coming weeks is full Iraqi disarmament. "I suspect that he will try to fool the world one more time. After all, he has had a history of doing that for 12 years. He's been successful at gaming the system. And our attitude is it's now time for him to fully disarm. And we expect the Security Council to honor its word by insisting that Saddam disarm. Now's the time."
The clock clearly is ticking -- and ticking quickly.
